N.J. Sports and Exposition Authority should waste no more money to keep contracts secret

Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerFans file into the Izod Center in April. An appellate court ruling today found the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which operates the Izod Center in the Meadowlands, must disclose contract deals.

There was an important appellate court ruling today, and the decision is 47 pages and complex, with a lot of legal jargon and case law, so we’ll give you the gist: The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority just wasted another half-million dollars of taxpayer money.

It’s one more sad chapter in the going-out-of-business (but not fast enough) agency that has burned through tens of millions of public dollars, thanks to mismanagement, indecipherable bookkeeping, outrageous salaries, ticket scandals — the list of fiscal felonies goes on and on.

In this most recent example of waste, the sports authority fought for two years and spent $360,000 to keep event and concert contracts from the same public that has been paying its bills.

The Star-Ledger wanted to know whether the sports authority was handing out sweetheart deals (possibly subsidized by the public) to lure acts to the Izod Center, which has already lost the Devils and Nets. Rather than release the information, the NJSEA lawyered-up. When a Superior Court judge ruled against the agency, the NJSEA lawyered-up again. And now an appellate panel has ruled unanimously that, under the Open Public Records Act, the sports authority must come clean.

The NJSEA’s obstinance means taxpayers must pay the newspaper’s legal fees, too — which pushes the total amount past a half-million dollars. What does the NJSEA care? It’s your money.

But the hide-and-seek jig is up.

When are bureaucratic secret-keepers (like the Port Authority knuckleheads who tried to hide bonuses) going to learn their lesson?

Gov. Chris Christie should order the sports authority to release the documents and stop any move to appeal to the state Supreme Court. Enough money has been wasted.